


The Duel

by LaurentheFlute



Category: Suikoden I
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:54:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27793402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaurentheFlute/pseuds/LaurentheFlute
Summary: This fight is inevitable; Tir has always known that. But, even so, it is never easy to face your father and know only one of you will live.Part of my DrabbleNovember challenge. The prompt was just "Sunset."
Relationships: Teo McDohl & Tir McDohl
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5
Collections: #DrabbleNovember 2020 Collection





	The Duel

The setting sun at his father's back is in his eyes, or maybe it is the fires from the battlefield around them. The silhouetted shadow of his father is larger than life, like the man who came home from war and carried a little boy high on his shoulders around the house, the man who told him stories and expected the best from him and taught him that to be a man was to know when to be strong and when to be gentle.

And now he would give anything to be that little boy again, to ride on his father's shoulders once more. For battlefields to be no more than the background of his father's stories, haunting the man's eyes, distant and unknown and only as real as fairy tales.

His father stands in front of him, the great general Teo McDohl, massive as a fortress in his gleaming armor, cloak billowing behind him in the breeze. But it is an illusion—his father's armor is smudged and smeared, his cloak singed, his face worn and lined and flecked with someone else's blood. And when his father extends the point of the sword toward Tir, he is breathing heavily. His voice is hoarse when he repeats himself. "I said, do you accept my challenge?"

There is no point in arguing. His father will not change his mind. His father will not become a prisoner of war—the thought is laughable, if anything about the situation is even darkly humorous. Teo McDohl will never be moved, and he will never surrender, not even to his own son. Rosman and Oppenheimer might have been controlled by Windy's cursed magic, but Tir has always known that his father acts out of love for the emperor. Teo will never betray Barbarossa. He will die by his son's hand before he will become a traitor to the empire, as his son has.

Smoke fills the air, making Tir's eyes sting and his throat itch, and he tastes the salt of sweat running down his face. He shoulders his bo staff, squares his stance, and takes a deep breath. Anything he might say in response is interrupted by cries of outrage and those around him calling his name in shock and horror.

"Viktor, cut that man's head off," he hears Mathiu order behind him. And he wants to shout _no, he's my father_ because the massive silhouetted figure in front of him is not just _that man_ to be dealt with so that the war can be won. Mathiu knows when to be hard and when to be gentle, and at this moment he is cold iron, making a calculation that Teo should be struck down and not by Tir's hand. And maybe that, in its own way, is meant as a kindness, too.

But Tir steps forward, facing his father.

"I accept," he says, before someone else can make this decision for him. Because he knows why his father must do this. His father nods slowly, approving. Tir has always sought his father's approval; even now, he seeks it.

The rest of the world falls away, and all he sees is the man ahead of him, the man in whose face he sees his own.

  
***

  
He realizes, too late, that his father swung wide on purpose, that this was an opening meant to be irresistible, to guarantee that Tir would strike hard and true. Years of training as a soldier cannot be overcome so easily by sentiment. Would Tir have been able to seek such an opening, if his father had not offered it so plainly? Would he have been able to land the final blow without that provided opening—would he have had the skill, and would he have had the fortitude?

And, as the weight of what he has done crushes his heart, as he watches his father fall to his knees and then collapse on the flat-trampled field, he wonders: Would his father have struck him down, in the end, if not?

He drops beside his father, cradles his father's head in his lap, tries not to see the blood he has spilled, the skin he has torn, the bones he has crushed. His father reaches for his hand, and he grips his father's trembling hand with both of his, and what hurts more than anything is the love he sees shining brightly in his father's eyes.

"Tir, my son, you have become… so strong," his father chokes out. Tir doesn't tell him to save his breath, because Teo is dying and nothing can stop that now. He squeezes his father's hand. His own words are failing him.

Around them, everything has gone still and silent. All Tir sees is his father's face; all he hears is his father's voice and his father's ragged breaths as his chest rises and falls, rises and falls, and Tir's heart aches. His right hand throbs. That damn rune.

"I'm happy, my … son," Teo gasps, and he is smiling, somehow, even though he knows he is dying. "I have no regrets. And I give my blessing… to your choice. The greatest happiness... a father can experience... is to see his son... surpass himself. Good luck, my son, Tir…" His voice is barely a whisper now, and Tir leans forward to catch these last words. He can see the moment the light leaves his father's eyes, the moment his breath stills, and Teo McDohl dies with his son's name on his lips, and he dies proud, and he dies full of love, and something inside of Tir dies, too.

**Author's Note:**

> I love Suikoden. I used to be involved with the fandom in the late 90s. It has been a very long time since I've created any sort of fan work for it, but I've been replaying the game and a friend suggested that I write this scene, since it is one of the scenes in the series that most suffers from having a silent protagonist and yet it's still powerful despite that.


End file.
